Ever since True Lies I’ve been waiting for an affordable pair of spy glasses that can transmit video in real time. My wait looks like it may be over very soon. Seattle startup ZionEyez is building momentum to launch their Eyez video recording glasses this year. The Roy Orbison looking Eyez will feature a 720p HD recording camera, microphone, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, 8 GB flash memory, and three hours of battery life. Using an iPhone or Android app you can transmit what your Eyez record directly to the web, or you can save and upload it later using a microUSB port. Take a tour of the Eyez in the animated video below. As part of their KickStarter funding project, you can get a pair of these video glasses for just $150 (shipping winter 2011), or wait until after July 31st for the general retail release at $200. *Due to the overwhelming popularity of the Eyez, the KickStarter project has already met its goal of $55,000 – it took less than eight days!* These glasses are just plain awesome, and I can’t wait until mine arrive. With devices like these I think we’re moving ever closer to a world where everything you do is being recorded and shared as it happens. Lifelogging, thine name is Eyez.

ZionEyez is currently in the process of formalizing their optical choices, so there’s no sample of the video Eyez will record. Still, the following animation is a great overview of the general style of the glasses, and the specs of the equipment that will be onboard.

What we do know about the Eyez is that they will record in 1280x720p HD video at 30 frames per second using a wide angle lens to capture a good view of what you’re seeing. The LED indicator light for recording will only flash once, and it will be internalized so only the wearer sees it – you’re friends won’t know they’re on camera! Talk about spy glasses. There’s also Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity so you can transmit data to your smart phone of choice and from their to Qik or Livestream and onward to Facebook, etc. Audio is recorded at 128 kb/s (reasonable quality) for a total stream with video around 15 Mbps. Not a bad setup and with a three hour battery life (and 8GB of memory), you’ll get plenty of power to handle webcasts.

Would you notice that HD camera? Me neither. Spy glasses, FTW.But that’s just one application. The ZionEyez vision includes replacing/augmenting mobile video recording. Right now when you want to snap a pic or record something on the go, you probably use either your phone or some dedicated camera (let’s say a Flip). How long can you hold that gadget up before your arms get tired? How involved can you be in what’s happening when you have to track what you’re seeing through the display of your mobile device? With Eyez you get a hands free first person view that’s both discreet and easy to share. Epic win in my book.

Now some hardcore video jockeys out there aren’t going to be satisfied with just 3 hours of recording per charge. For you, the microUSB port on ZionEyez will be a means of extending record time (through an external battery), as well as possibly transferring data onto different platforms (backup drive, etc).

What this means is that whether you are an avid lifelogger, or just someone who wants a better mobile video solution, Eyez has something to offer. Which I think means ZionEyez has a really good chance of succeeding. Their KickStarter page agrees. In the time it took me to write this article they received $2000 in pledges. They’ve already met their goal of $55k, and they have more than 50 days left to go in their pledge drive! In interest of full disclosure, I was one of the people who’s pledged money to the project – the offer for $150 HD spy glasses was just too good to pass up. Singularity Hub’s Keith Kleiner also pledged for a pair of these glasses. (And that offer should still be good up to July 31st…so, you know…don’t miss it).

A better look at the microUSB port, which again, is probably going to be unnoticeable to the casual observer.We’ve covered several different video recording glasses in the past. Most, however, are aimed at the outdoor sports enthusiasts, and few are offered as cheaply as $150. What really makes me think that the Eyez could be a breakout gadget, however, is that it looks like it will have the right combination of appearance and performance. The Ray-Ban style frames will pass unnoticed in most social situations, especially as you can swap out clear or shaded lenses as you like (you could also easily fitt prescription lenses). The connectivity through a smart phone matches up with the planned user base very well, as does their vision for linking these glasses directly to the social network. Eyez seem to be custom fit to sell well. Indeed, $55k in eight days means they already have succeeded as a KickStarter project.

Now, as cool as Eyez may appear, there’s still plenty of reasons to be cautious. That animation video is great, but it’s not a real product. Is it vaporware? Well, the cynic in me says it’s too early to say otherwise, but ZionEyez CTO, Joe Taylor, is coming from Flip, a company that made millions on mobile cameras , and I don’t think there’s anything in this build that would be impossible or undeliverable at this price. Should we be concerned that Eyez is coming from a crowd sourced project rather than a big name distributor? Maybe. But it could also just be a sign that bright young entrepreneurs know that there’s more money to be made the longer they stay independent.

You know, I already pledged money to these guys, so maybe I’m biased. Look over their site, their project page, their specs, and decide for yourself.

What I’m certain of is that this kind of product – camera glasses that blend in and allow for easy hands free recording – is going to be hitting the mainstream, and soon. There are many companies entering this field, including big names like Polaroid, and roughly similar devices are already on the market. In the next few years the number of people wearing video glasses is likely to expand from celebrities like Lady Gaga to thousands of average people looking for an easy way to share their lives. That may excite you, it may you make you paranoid about privacy, or it may strike you as silly. Doesn’t matter. Get ready for everything you see to be on the social network. The future of mobile recording is very near.

“A pair of camera equipped shades makes video-sharing as easy as walking down the street.

Rather than let life pass you by, save it. With the camera-equipped Eyez glasses, users can share point-of-view video without the clunky cameras and nettlesome file transfers that rabid uploaders typically endure.

The Ray-Ban-style shades capture an extra-wide 130-degree field of vision through a half-inch fisheye-like lens, which is masked as a grommet on the right side of the frame. A 0.2-inch high-def sensor captures images, and then a low-power one-gigahertz processor compresses the video. The foot-age is either saved into onboard flash memory or beamed from a 2.4 gigahertz Wi-Fi/Bluetooth radio to your smartphone. An app controls the camera remotely and acts a host through which footage streams to Facebook, YouTube or the Eyez homepage. The setup gets power from a molded lithium-polymer battery in the frame’s left arm.

As cellular radios continue to shrink and become more efficient over the coming years, Eyez may eventually be able to connect, stream, and share from anywhere without relying on a cellphone."

"I just got off the phone with Carlos Becerra, the CEO of a new company,Zioneyez, which will be offering an intriguing product this coming summer that I think is going to be big.

Moreover, I believe that it’s going to trigger a wave of similar products and the market they create will have a huge impact on our society.

What will the company be selling? Glasses.

Yep, that’s a lot to hope for some specs but here’s what makes them special: The Zioneyez glasses, which look somewhat like RayBan Wayfarers, with removable UVA/UVB blocking lenses (you’ll be able to use prescription lenses too), will have a built-in video camera which is more-or-less completely hidden in the frame. And it’s not just any camera; oh no, the specs (or perhaps that should be “spec specs”) claim that it will offer 720p HD video and will be able to record for three hours on the built-in 8GB Flash memory. And to start and stop recording you will to just have to touch a point on the frame. Wow. How’s that for discrete not to mention sneaky?

But wait! It gets better. The glasses will also include wireless networking (802.11n) and Bluetooth support (v3.0). The intention for the networking services is to support video streaming to PCs and smartphones so that wearers can “life stream” … that’s geek for sending out live video of what you are doing.

So, no longer will you only be able to tell people on Twitter and Facebook that you’re having a tuna sandwich for lunch, you’ll be able to show them and they can watch you consume it!

Sure, you can do that today but the messing around with smartphone cameras and holding them so your “fans” can watch your dining progress is far too clumsy. With the Zioneyez you’ll be ready to broadcast the most intimate details of your life at a moment’s notice! (Of course, the potential for really embarrassing broadcasting mistakes is huge … in fact, much easier than Anthony Weiner’s typing “@” instead of “D” and we all know what that lead to …)

Part of the drive to create the Zioneyez product was Cisco announcing recently that they were shutting the doors on their 2009, $590 million acquisition of Pure Digital, the company that produced the Flip Camera.

The impetus for Cisco’s decision was that the Flip camera line was becoming uncompetitive in the face of the explosion of cameras in Smartphones; many of which now produce equally good or even better video than the Flip cameras and offer far more functionality in terms of editing, effects, storage, and streaming. Zioneyez now employs a number of the developers from Cisco’s Flip division.

The target price for the Zioneyez glasses will be $199 which will make them affordable to a wide market.

But what will that market do with them … ah, there’s the rub …

I don’t know if you saw an article a few days ago about a particularly ugly incident in Florida where a citizen with a smartphone, Narces Benoit, videoed the police when they shot and killed a suspect sitting in a stopped car. When the police realized that they had been videoed killing him, they pointed their guns at Benoit, hauled him and his girlfriend out of their car, handcuffed them, threw them to the ground, and smashed Benoit’s cellphone. They then put the broken cellphone back into Benoit’s pocket and reportedly did much the same to everyone in vicinity who had a cellphone.

The police took Benoit and his girlfriend to a police station, questioned them, and demanded the video. Benoit pointed out that they had smashed his phone but, luckily, he had somehow managed to extract the memory card from the phone and hide it in his mouth before the cops smashed it. Within hours of his release, the video was online and what appears to have been a huge police over-reaction that would have been covered up has been made public. Hopefully, heads will roll.

What’s interesting is that as devices like Zioneyez’ glasses proliferate the chance for people to get away with crimes committed in public and private places will diminish. Forget citizen journalism, citizen monitoring will become commonplace and everything from serious events like the one in Miami to bad driving and kids spraying graffiti will be captured and potentially become evidence.

And just think how much Homeland Security, the FBI, and the CIA will love this! All of that footage put online by citizens in pursuit of their social networking will be processed by facial recognition software allowing all of those agencies to automatically look for “people of interest” in all sorts of situations where and when regular video surveillance isn’t available. Talk about a windfall!

There’s also the interesting possibility of integrating this streaming video into services such as Google Earth, Google Maps, and Bing Maps … in fact, this merging of live video streams with a 3D model has already been done with Microsoft Photosynth and the results are amazing!

The “life streaming” video market is going to become a big deal and the implications for citizen journalism, transparent government, and national security are huge.

The only thing I forgot to ask Zioneyez’ Beccera about is buying stock."

Because of you, ZionEyez has been able to keep true to its grass roots mentality and grow organically. ZionEyez's mission is to create the most effortless video recording experience in existence and together we have been able to take a giant leap in accomplishing our mission.

Now that we have reached the threshold amount needed to develop this amazing product, please spread the word and tell your friends and family to join the movement. Every pre-order and/or pledge we receive from now until July 31, 2011 will only improve the quality of our product and the speed in which you can receive your very own pair of Eyez™ .